‘Topgolf Chef Showdown’ second season winner announced at Topgolf Scottsdale
By Lynette Carrington
“Topgolf Chef Showdown” is a culinary competition between every Topgolf venue across the globe that took place March 7 at the Scottsdale Topgolf.
During the course of the show, chefs compete to have their winning dish showcased on Topgolf menus around the world. The show’s judges feature celebrity chef, author and restaurateur, Scott Conant and national director of culinary operations at Topgolf, Seve Delgado.
Having the event at Topgolf Scottsdale was natural fit as Scott Conant lives close to the venue. One of his restaurants, Mora, is located here in Phoenix as well.”
The finalists in the season two competition were Topgolf chefs Douglas Mace from Denver, CO, Cat Colaizzi, from Virginia Beach, VA, Tatiana Rodriguez from Roseville, CA and Alex Guzman from Overland Park, KS.
Chef Cat Colaizzi emerged victorious with her spring meatball platter. The sharable plate features tantalizing Greek-style meatballs that incorporate chicken and lamb, mint, crushed red pepper, honey and lemon. The dish is served with pickled veggies and tzatziki sauce to give an entire taste experience to guests.
“I knew I wanted to stick to something healthier,” says Colaizza of her winning meatball dish. “We read our guest satisfaction surveys at Topgolf, and we take in the feedback that we get from guests. Some of the feedback we get is that people want healthier options.”
National director of culinary operations at Topgolf Seve Delgado said, “The reason behind Chef Showdown is that we wanted to highlight that at Topgolf, and not just the Scottsdale location, we hire executive chefs and sous chefs at every venue. We take a lot of pride in the food we make. There’s a lot of love that goes into all our recipes and for the most part, we are from-scratch kitchens.” Delgado goes on to joke that she even wrestled a couple of prized recipes away from her aunts that had once belonged to her grandmother.
Conant was impressed by the contestants competitiveness, but with an edge of camaraderie. Conant said, “What they experience as chefs coming into this competition… they are competitive with one another and trying to identify that skill set for betterment. But more importantly, they work together as a team, even though they are competing against each other. Throughout every competition, they’d check in with each other to see how they were doing.”
Chef Cat Colaizzi’s winning dish will be featured on all Topgolf menus through May.
